This invention relates to sailboat riggings and fittings, and relates more particularly to apparatus for hoisting, supporting and furling the sails of sailboats, most typically headstay and forestay assemblies for jibs and other headsails.
For many years, jibs and other headsails have been furled by rolling them around the elongated elements that support and stiffen the lead edges, or "luffs" of the sails. These elements may take various forms including cables, rods and the like, and are referred to in the trade and herein as "luff wires." Furling is primarily a matter of convenience, but also used to adjust the amount of active sail by rolling up, or "reefing," part of the sail.
To facilitate furling and unfurling of sails, roller-furling gear has been developed to connect the luff wire to the hull of the sailboat, and to rotate the luff wire in one direction when the sail is to be furled. The roller-furling gear also controls rotation of the wire in the opposite direction as a sail is unfurled. A typical roller-furling unit includes a drum that is wrapped with a control line for turning the drum, and thus the luff wire, to wrap the sail about the wire. The sail is set by releasing the control line and hauling on a line connected to the sail, typically a so-called "jibsheet," to unroll the sail from the luff wire as the control line is rolled up on the drum.
It will be evident, of course, that the luff of the sail must be attached to the luff wire so that the luff wire takes the luff with it as it rotates, rather than rotating relative to the sail. Since jibs conventionally have been attached by fasteners comprising loose, latching hooks, called "hanks" or "jib snaps," for connecting the jibs releasable and slidably to the luff wires, it has not been practical to use such conventional fasteners with furling gear. Instead, the customary practice has been to sew the jibs tightly and permanently onto the luff wires, thereby providing the necessary tightness for furling.
It is desirable in many situations to substitute one jib for another, to suit different sailing conditions, and for this purpose, non-furling riggings frequently have included a line, such as a jib halyard trained over a halyard block supported adjacent the upper ends of the luff wire, as permitted by the loose connection of the jib snaps on the luff wire. Of course, with a jib tightly sewn onto the luff wire so as to permit furling, the option of freely changing jibs is eliminated.
Efforts have been made to provide a suitable furling connection between the luff wire and the luff, that would permit hoisting and lowering of the sail, and also changing of sails, but these efforts have not resulted in a satisfactory solution. One prior development utilized a double wire with connections for rotating the two strands about a common longitudinal axis, with a hoisting connection that was slidable along the wires and rotatable thereby. This type of furling gear was relatively complex and bulky in construction, and although the substantial advance, was not an optimum solution. The primary objective of this invention is to provide a significant improvement and simplification of this general concept, to eliminate the need for more than a single wire, while providing a sail hoisting, supporting and furling apparatus with all of the advantages in hoisting and sail-changing available with prior non-furling riggings.